Help! First time MMD buyer.

[Tickling]

Greetings all,

I apologize in advance if there is another thread covering this, I could not find it, if so please direct me to it.

So the short story is, I already splurged on a 'regular' diamond engagement ring. Now I'm looking to buy a second, less expensive, "wear to work" ring for the fiance. The name of the game is saving money at this point, so my questions and specs are:

The diamond needs to be at least one carat, color G or better, clarity, cut (prefer round) and the rest I'm open to ideas.

My search so far has not turned up anything in that size, is there any savings for that size in MMD?

Creating a "custom piece" sounds expensive, is it?

Thanks for your help.

Welcoming any advice.

 

[Niel]

Its not going to save you money going with a big near colorless MMD.

What price is it you are trying to stay under for this ring.

And also, why near colorless? Is that what your original ring was? Why have two rings the same, one just the Sr, one the Jr?

Might be money saving to get an orangy colored one.

 

[Tickling]

Hey Neil,

I'm trying to stay around 4,000 USD for the stone (or less!).

As for the color, from my limited crash course/education, that seemed to be one of the most important aspects of a white diamond. The rest can be more or less skimped on?

The original ring is a vintage style, I'm trying to go white gold/diamond for a more professional look.

Any ideas?

 

[ChristineRose]

Gemesis is the only lab growing white diamonds in large quantities. They do not have any diamond that meets your specifications at this time. The largest diamonds will be square (emerald, princess) because that preserves more of the rough. The largest diamonds will also tend towards lower colors because yellows grow faster than whites.

Cut is by far the most important thing to look at. Assuming you are going for the classic round look, an ideal cut will face up much brighter than a poorly cut diamond. Normally the Pricescope regulars would steer you to an ideal cut I or J, but as lab grown diamonds are usually not graded by either AGL or GIA, the grades are a little dicey. Gemesis does have some ideal cut K that otherwise fit your needs. There are people who actually prefer diamonds in this range and they use words like "romantic" and "candlelit" to describe their color. But a K will not appear bright white.

In general MMD are not that cheap. The target audience seems to be people who object to strip-mining, child labor, and rich warlords--that and technophiles. The real savings comes with the colored diamonds. You can get a colored lab diamond for about the same price as a white diamond, where a natural colored diamond can cost 10,000 times its white equivalents.

 

[Tickling]

Thanks ChristineRose,

I had heard that there were 20-30% savings in MMD's. But that must have been regarding colored stones. Since I'm not in the market for colored stones at the moment I guess I will have to look elsewhere.

Thanks!

 

[Niel]

you can get a 1ct k-l colored stone for about 4k when its ideal cut...which is most important, not color, to the overall appeal to a stone


http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/10281/ ( set it in a simple rose gold setting and it be very pretty as a backup ring..)
might be worth seeing in person befoer you pass judgement

or go used with an old cut

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-08CT-I-VS1-EGL-USA-CERTIFIED-OLD-EUROPEAN-CUT-DIAMOND-LOOSE-ROUND-6-5MM-OEC-OM-/400527480342?pt=Loose_Diamonds&hash=item5d414c5616

 

[ChristineRose]

Tickling,

I have heard people talk about 20%-30% also, but I don't think it's true. One thing I think they miss is that most synthetic diamonds are not graded by GIA. In general IGI graded diamonds trade at a discount to GIA graded diamonds. It really complicates the valuation because not only do we not know whether any given IGI "G" is comparable to a GIA G, we don't even know if IGI is judging the synthetics differently from naturals.

You can experiment with the diamond search function here on Pricescope. Check "Other labs" and look for IGI diamonds, and compare those to the Gemesis diamonds. You may see some discounting, but it won't be anywhere near 30%. Honestly though, prices very so much that it's hard to identify any trend here.

 

[VirtualBoston]

Glad I stumbled upon this. Been reading a lot, but not posting. This is very helpful!!

 

[periwinklegirl]

Hi VirtualBoston,
Welcome to the Lab Grown forum!

Please don't be shy to post questions. We'll do our best to answer!